Introduction

As someone who builds a lot of electrical things, one of the perhaps most unexciting yet fundamental subject areas is connectors. The range of connectors available and in-use today is trully astonishing. Big sellers like Digi-key/Farnell/Mouser literally have tens of thousands of product lines in their connectors category!

With so many different types of connectors available, it’s often difficult to know what to buy, especially when you’re buying for general use or “personal stock”. On this page I’ll cover some of the most common connectors in use today, and detail crimping/tooling considerations.

Every connector system ever conceived has its own official crimp tool, in most cases the cost of these is over and above what any hobbyist could and would want to pay for a crimp tool.

I personally own many of the official tools but for cost reasons don’t necessarily recommend them. Throughout this page I’ll demonstrate the use of two inexpensive generic crimping tools: the Engineer PA-09 and PA-21, and compare them against the genuine parts.

Engineer PA-09 and PA-21

What differences can I expect using original tools versus generic tools?

These are four main differences:

Single action: All original tools allow insertion of the contact and crimping in one go. Generic tools will often require the insulation and wire crimp to be performed as separate actions

Correct crimping force: When using generic tools, it can often be difficult to get sufficient crimping force, especially when crimping thin / small gauge wire into terminals. It is also equally easy to over crimp terminals, damaging the wire in the process.

Locator: All original tools have a ‘locator’ which holds the terminal in place during crimping, this means that your crimps are perfect every time. Using generic tools, it can be frustrating trying to line the terminal up correctly.

Cost: Original tools are all extremely expensive. Unless like me you’re happy to prowl eBay looking for deals on second hand original tools, expect to be paying hundreds to over a thousand dollars (USD) / £ (GBP) for an original tool, only to have it work on a single connector family!

What’s wrong with just soldering terminals?

Before I even get started, let’s cover this one briefly with a simple diagram:

Correctly crimped terminal

When crimped properly, the strands remain individual even upon entering the insulation crimp, making the chances of strands breaking low.

Soldered terminal

When soldering, there is a very high chance that the solder will wick up the wire, beyond the insulation crimp, making it very vulnerable to mechanical damage. In this situation, it only takes a small amount of movement to start snapping the strands at the invisible weak point.

Soldering doesn’t have any disadvantage in electrical terms, only mechanical. That make this method non-viable for production use; except under very controlled conditions with connectors that are designed for soldering.

These are often referred to as “DuPont” connectors. This is not an ideal name for two reasons: DuPont Connector Systems made many families of connectors, and the ones we commonly refer to as such aren’t quite the same as DuPont’s original “Mini-PV” design.

So what should we call these connectors then? Quite frankly – I have no idea.

Mini-PV Housings

The top three housings are clones, and the larger is an original. Can you spot the difference? Stuffed if I could have at first!

Bergstrip Headers

The headers Mini-PV mate with are sold under the trademark “Bergstik”. Top left and bottom right are original Amphenol parts, not that it really matters for headers, as they’re both of identical 2.54mm spacing.

Original Mini-PV connectors and terminals are rarely seen, perhaps not surprisingly (not least due to cost considerations), despite looking almost identical to common clones, Mini-PV terminals/housings and clone terminals/housings are surprisingly not interchangeable.

Uncrimped Mini-PV Terminals

From left to right: Original Mini-PV terminal, Clone female terminal, Clone male terminal.

Original terminals (left) are ever so slightly slimmer, equally, there is that much less room in the housing, meaning that you can’t jam cheaper clone terminals into Mini-PV housings. This is somewhat of a bummer when you consider that the range of original housings is more extensive, better quality and more reliably obtainable than clones.

In terms of Amphenol’s tools – I’m aware of three official parts:

HT-95 (HT-0095): The current Mini-PV crimp tool. This is a large, expensive, clumsy tool, which despite being heavy as all heck and not particularly easy to use, does do the best job of crimping.

HT-100 (HT-0100): This tool is apparently identical to the HT-95. Another one to watch out for on eBay if you are wanting to buy original.

Amphenol recently generously dropped the leading ‘1’ from the retail price of this tool – reducing it from £1,800 to an affordable £800 (not!)

DuPont/Amphenol HT-95. The HT-100 looks identical to this.

My one is an old DuPont branded tool, identical to the current one, which I paid one hell of a lot less for second hand.

I also removed the ratchet mechanism (and added a piece of string to hold it shut) as it has no manual release, meaning if you get a contact stuck in the wrong way during crimping, the inevitable result is a busted crimp jaw, which does not cost under £100 to fix.

There are two other tools for this series:

HT-208: Historic tool for crimping 22-26AWG wire

HT-213: Historic tool for crimping 28-32AWG wire

If setup properly, They’re much nicer to use than HT-95, but fairly rare. Can only be had second hand these days.

DuPont HT-208 and HT-213

All three tools crimp both original and clone terminals just fine.

Crimping with unofficial tools

Crimped Mini-PV Terminals

From left to right: Generic terminal crimped with PA-09, Generic terminal crimped with HT-95, Original terminal crimped with HT-95

Mini-PV is the one and only light terminal family I’ve encountered which generic tools such as PA-09 suck at crimping. As can be clearly seen above, the insulation crimp is a mess, often these won’t even fit into the housing.

The problem is apparent when we examine the upper half of the crimp jaw. The original tool is clearly cylindrical, whereas the generic is split, with the intention of curling each side around and back down into the wire again, which is most certainly not what we want for this type of terminal.

I have never seen a generic tool with a jaw like this. If you find one, tell me about it! I find myself wondering if it may be possible to attack a cheap tool with a Dremel to fix this.

This is a shame because these are the terminals most likely to be used by hobbyists on a budget, who don’t want to fork out a months pay to buy a better tool.

Unofficial male terminals

While similar families like Molex SL have male connectors, Mini-PV is a strictly wire-to-board connector family, so no official male terminal or housing has been produced, But as always, if there’s a market, there’ll be a product.

Above is a couple of types of eBay purchased male terminals. The DuPont designed tools do not take male terminals, so either they have to be modified or generic tools must be used.

XH – (JST – Japan Solderless Terminal)

This is a slightly larger edition of the PH connector, except with 2.5mm pitch, and slightly larger terminals. Once again, mostly found in low cost consumer electronics.

I almost never use these, but on the rare occasion I do, the Engineer PA-09 does the job

Picoblade (Molex)

Molex Picoblade connectors

Very small (1.25mm) pitch connectors commonly found on laptop and VGA card fans.

KK 254 / KK .100 (Molex)

This type of connector is produced by a very large number of manufacturers. For the most part, headers and housings mate and latch fairly well across brands.

Sub series:

KK 6471 – Housings

KK 6410 – Headers

KK 7395 – Headers (Right angle)

08-50-0113 – Terminal (Tin plated)

08-50-0114 – Terminal (Tin plated, Pack of 100)

The application most people have likely seen it in is as the connector for PC 2, 3, and 4 wire fans.

For the most part I don’t buy original Molex parts, with the exception of the oddball 47054-1000 housing and 47053-1000 header – both have the specially tweaked polarisation for 4-wire fans (pictured below).

I don’t think the result of the PA-09 is unacceptable, but it requires a lot of force to get sufficient crimp on the wire part, subsequently leaving you prone to then over crimping the insulation part, in many cases severing the wire off completely, and having to start again!

The official tool is a lot easier and faster to use! it also does not end up piercing the insulation after crimping. If you crimp a lot of these like I do, I suggest waiting around on eBay for one to come up cheap, it’s worth it.

Unofficial male connectors

Unfortunately there is no standard male connector in the KK 100 family, but this hasn’t stopped a slew of unofficial connectors from being produced.

Compatible KK 100 male connectors

Above is a variety of Chinese manufactured connectors I’ve purchased off eBay and Alibaba which are designed to mate with KK 100 female connectors. They are only found in 2, 3 and 4 positions, because, these are the variants used for PC fans.

The quality of these is not comparable to that of the mating connectors, but perhaps this is not so surprising, given the intended market of these connectors.

KK 396 / KK .156 (Molex)

Molex KK 156 compatible connectors

Preferred for high voltage applications due to low cost and generous pitch spacing, these are the connector typically used for PC power supply mains inlet connections.

Crimping with unofficial tools

Crimped Mini-Fit Jr terminals

Left is a terminal crimped with the Engineer PA-21. Pretty good really, about the same result as the budget Molex tool would produce, albeit with less ability to apply the minimum recommended crimping force.

On the right is a terminal crimped with the original tool, the big difference is that the insulation crimp is cleanly wrapped around the wire, whereas on the budget tool, and on generic tools, the insulation crimp has ended up piercing the insulation, which is technically a less robust result.

Mini-Fit Sr (Molex)

Mini-Fit Sr connectors

A commonly used heavy (50 amp) power connector. It has no frequent consumer uses, but is often used industrially for battery connectors, chargers, large motor controllers, DC power supplies etc.

Despite the similarity of the name to Mini-Fit Jr, that’s about where it ends – these connectors are big. They would make a very a reliable replacement for cigar plugs in marine/automotive applications.

Given the amount of force required to crimp these, I’m doubtful there is much in the way of good unofficial crimp tools. Even with 63811-1600 – large enough to bludgeon someone to death with, crimping requires significant elbow grease.

Half measures aren’t generally a good idea when you’re dealing with something that carries the kind of power these are designed for. If you don’t have the tool, I would suggest carefully soldering terminals – unless you’re looking to start a fire. Mini-Fit Sr terminals are near impossible to reliably manually crimp with pliers.

Micro-Fit (Molex)

Molex Micro-Fit connectors

These look identical to Mini-Fit Jr, but quite a bit smaller. Not often seen in consumer products but has occasional use in small ‘DC’ / ITX / Automotive PC power supply applications. I’ve also seen them in other unusual applications such as the connector on the DC end of the plug pack for HP Printers and Cisco routers.

Left: Crimped with Engineer PA-09 Right: Crimped with original toolLeft: Crimped with Engineer PA-09 Right: Crimped with original tool

As always when using generic tools, results are usable but not entirely ideal. The insulation crimp has clearly pierced the insulation, meaning it would be at risk of tearing under mechanical stress. Another issue I noticed is that the contact ends up bent vertically a little too, due to the awkward un-crimped shape of the terminal. This means that you’ll have to bend each terminal straight again before insertion into the housing.

Due to their small size and high current capacity, these have become one of my favourite connectors.

Milligrid (Molex)

Molex Milligrid connectors

2.0mm pitch. Was used by parallel ATA laptop hard disks. Has a few current uses i.e. USB 3.0 internal headers. Compatible connectors are manufactured by many other companies.

Disk Drive Power Connection System (Molex)

Disk Drive Power Connection System

Referred to as “Molex” connectors by the layman, this is a largely obsolete family. Notable however, as it was used for 5.25″ PC floppy drives, CD-ROM drives and 3.5″ parallel ATA hard disk drives, plus a veritable arseload of other PC related applications.

The official crimp tool for this family is 63811-7000. I have never seen one, and I doubt that I ever will.

Key part numbers

Crimping with unofficial tools

Realistically you can crimp these with almost anything. If you own the genuine tool, I tip my hat to you. I bet you didn’t pay for it!

Below is a tool known as HT-225D I got for a few quid off eBay a while back:

HT-225D Generic crimp toolCrimped terminal

Does a superb job of crimping Molex DDPCS. It also does a swell job of crimping KK 156 terminals (see above).

E.I. (AMP)

Often mistakenly referred to as “Molex” connectors – Molex did not ever produce any connector compatible with this family.

Like the above, also obsolete, but historically notable. Used for 3.5″ PC floppy drives. These connectors came with up to 9 positions. I have only ever seen the 4 position variety, and I suspect this will remain the case.

AMP E.I. Connectors

Like the above, these can be crimped with pretty much anything you can fit the contact into.

I echo the previous comments. I have had cause to start working with some of these connector types recently; I was utterly bemused at the enormous range of products and tools on the market, to say nothing of the confusing names and terminology used, so this article has been very helpful indeed. Many thanks for taking the time to put it together.

like the above comments:
excellent guide, I appreciate you taking your time to o such a comprehensive article.
Others found on the net can be quite cryptic and incomplete.
I just picked up a Berg HT-47 for 50$ incl. shipping on Ebay, since generic tools doesn’t seem to cut it.
hopefully it’ll do the job as well as the HT-95.

Thanks a lot.
I’ve been researching for a while about this connectors and tools and your’s is, by far, the most complete and informative post I’ve found.
I was looking for a budget “universal” crimping tool (or two) that I could use to start making my own connectors.
Looks like the Engineer tools are the ones to look at. The other brand I’ve found interesting was KS Tools, models 115.1440 and 115.1450, but I haven’t found any review about them.

As said before, this was extremely helpful. I’m working on a tiny project to add a couple of contacts on the rear of my desktop that will be wired to the power switch on my motherboard, allowing for general switching needs, but I couldn’t for the life of me find the correct search terms to find the right connectors on *generic chinese webshop* for the motherboard headers. Turned out to be DuPont, thanks for helping out!
Also enjoyed reading the rest of the article, you have an enjoyable writing style.

3 position Mini-PV plugs are used for most hobby servos btw. (some servos use what I think is a JST-RE connector which will mate with Mini-PV but uses a slightly different pin and housing design) Futaba uses a Mini-PV variant with a polarizing flange on one side of the housing (the pins are the same the only difference is the flange on the housing) The funny thing is that tracking down the identity of this connector was actually pretty hard, and most people in the R/C hobby don’t know the true identity of this connector or what the proper crimping tool for it is (it took me ages to track this down)

One other tool that is very useful, is the AMP Service Tool I also known as the SUPER CHAMP Hand Tool 696202–1. This is an “inexpensive” (~$125 list) stamped tool. It will do the round strain relief crimp and many 2.54mm, 3.96mm, and some larger contacts fairly well. There is also a Service Tool II, but I do not have one and can’t describe how it’s different. It looks identical to me in the photos I’ve seen.

This is awesome. I’ve scoured the web for information like this and it’s very difficult to find. This page is even better than what I expected to eventually find so thank you for taking the time to put this together, it’s very appreciated!

MPI (a company that sells R/C stuff) sells servo plug kits using the “double D” type pins I was talking about earlier, they look like Mini-PV but they have an insulation and conductor crimp with square “wings” and will crimp correctly with double D type crimpers. I don’t think these are real JST-RE connectors rather I think they are a chinese knockoff, for one thing JST-RE doesn’t have an official male pin. I’ve noticed that a lot of R/C hobby servos now use these instead of the Mini-PV knockoff.

Have you ever come across TE Connectivity connector systems? I liked the look of their Power Triple Lock connectors so bought a bunch of different plug housings and crimps. Unfortunately the crimps are not suitable for the HT-225D crimper, my only tool. TE’s tool costs over $1000 as far as I can tell although I can’t really work out if you can buy the die separately and get a 2nd hand “structure only” tool?

In this day and age it is quite difficult not to come across TE. They do now own several of the families I have listed on this blog.

Most of the stuff I’ve listed on here is made by several manufacturers. Connectors like what you’ve mentioned are still in patent and only made by the one company. Of course, when dealing with such systems, it will not be cheap and therefore not really in the ‘hobby’ realm.

Sorry I’m back again (even when I try and Google an answer your page comes up the top).

I’ve literally been looking for a couple of weeks for 2.54mm (breadboard compatible) connector system that is suitable for both wire-to-board and wire-to-wire connections. I do a lot of breadboard and low power robot projects and am looking for a good connector system to justify the invest in a crimping tool. I’m trying to satisfy these requirements:

I was wondering if the knipex 97 49 44 “for rolled contacts”[1] would work for the Mini-PVs.
If the matching crimp system pliers qualify as a generic tool, could be this is
the answer to your question for a generic tool in the Mini-PV section.
Any experience or thoughts on this?

And there’s the HT-73 which is for crimping Mini-PV terminals onto 18-20AWG wire. How you’d fit an 18 AWG wire into a Mini-PV housing I don’t know, 20 AWG would just barely fit, some hobby servos come with 20AWG leads.

Also FCI Amphenol makes large wire (18-20AWG) and small wire (28-32AWG) versions of the Mini PV crimp terminals as well as multiple versions of each type that have differing insertion force ratings. Again I have no idea how you’re supposed to fit an 18AWG wire into a Mini-PV housing, it seems like it wouldn’t go in unless there’s a large wire version of the housings (which I haven’t been able to find)

Anyway this page shows the different terminals with part numbers in an organized table.

Thank you for all this great information! It’s helped me figure out different contact systems. I originally was wondering how to crimp those DuPont style connectors and since reading this last year, I’ve now got a HT-102, HT-95 and a HT-208. Though between the 95 and 102, the crimp anvil on the 102 for the contacts is too long for the DuPont style connectors and crushes them.

I’ve decided I’m going to give that knipex 97 49 44 a try as well since I saw it floating around on Amazon for $37 bucks. Worth a shot if it’ll fit into my paladin crimp handles.

In terms of Mini-Fit Jr, I only buy originals – they are actually easier to get (for me at least).

For KK100, in reference to that comment, my preference has since changed. I discarded my entire stock of knock-off KK100’s and replaced them with original gold plated headers/contacts. The reason for this is that I have found that tin plated KK100 connectors (when used for signal connections) only last about 3 years, after that they corrode and fail, needing to be replaced – something I have gotten rather tired of lately.

Thanks for that update, always good stuff to know. Since you mentioned the problem with the tin-plated contacts, are you referring to corrosion in general, or something more specific like fretting corrosion?

Just found the identity of another common connector type, this one took me ages to track down. These are commonly used on RC servos as an alternative to Mini PVs (more servos in recent years seem to use these instead of the Mini-PV). They originally showed up on JR Propo servos and then spread from there. They are superficially similar to Mini-PV terminals but the “latch” is lower on the housing and they are designed for a double D crimp die. The male side of the connector has a shroud that snaps over the housing.

Addition to the above, I mean they have futaba style housings available for these terminals in addition to the JR type housings. The main difference is that JR housings have a beveled corner for polarity pritection where the Futaba type have a flange on the side of the housing.

Genuine Futaba terminals are yet another 0.1 terminal type, they have two “tongs” that grip the male pin on either side. So far I have not been able to track these down.

@Fythios I have an HT-102 and it works perfectly for Mini-PV male terminals. Does yours have the terminal holding device? I’ve seen a lot of modified or flat out incorrect tools being sold on Ebay as HT-95 or HT-102s.

@Atomic Skull apparently I dun goofed and got that backwards. The HT-102 is fine, but the HT-95 anvils wire crimp area are too long and crush part of the contact. Both have the terminal holders, the 102 has the male holder and the 95 has female holders.

Molex also sells a very cheap universal B crimper that has an extreme variety of sizes in one tool, Molex P/N 63811-1000
these used to be sub 20 USD. This is a very handy unit for a travel toolkit becasue it can do a very wide variety of sizes in one tool.

Nice article. Though i am a beginner it helped me a lot while differentiating between the connectors. I will be glad if you can put few images of those connectors where they are used. That will make me more clear when i will use them actually. I am working on a project where the device consist of sensors, steppers, stepper drivers, switches, power supply and arduino mega. I would need to figure out few connectors but want to know which connector will be exact fit for the place where i am going to use it.